Annual Gathering of Bioscience Experts

Southwest Michigan First, has been working for three years to bring Michigan's largest annual gathering of bioscience professionals to Kalamazoo and on November 3-4, 2009, the MichBio Expo will be held at the Radisson Plaza Hotel & Suites, 100 W. Michigan Ave.

The event is expected to attract more than 60 companies seeking networking opportunities and funding for research. It will feature a keynote address by Robert Fischell, chairman of Svelte Medical Systems Inc. and owner of more than 200 patents, as well as educational sessions and workshops. Representatives from Stryker Corp., Pfizer Inc., PharmOptima LLC and Kalexsyn Inc., among other local and national companies, will attend the expo to help educate their staff members, build partnerships with others and possibly make pitches to investors for research funding.

More than 500 people have registered for the expo, which is drawing bioscience companies of all different stripes. The goals of the expo are to showcase what Michigan has to offer in the biosciences field and to educate companies about recent advancements.

Two new events will be introduced this year, bringing academia and foreign companies to the expo. One is an emerging-technologies session to bridge academic research with industry. Representatives from Western Michigan University, Wayne State University, Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Michigan Technological University will describe the research they have done with state funding and what they have found.

Another session will feature an Israeli speaking about innovative technologies and Israel's latest research. Israel is a leader in the biomedical industry, with more medical-device patents per capita than any other nation.

http://www.southwestmichiganfirst.com/